May 18, 2005

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Army golf team is one of 27 squads traveling to Nashville, Tenn., for the 54-hole NCAA East Regional at the Golf Club of Tennessee slated for May 19-21. The Black Knights will attempt to improve on their 23rd place showing from a year ago when they journeyed to New Haven, Conn., for the 2004 NCAA East Regional at Yale.

Army is one of 16 teams making a repeat performance in the East Regional this weekend. Defending regional champion Clemson returns to the East as the ninth seed. In fact, nine of the top 10 teams from the New Haven event will be dueling once again in Nashville, including top-seeded Georgia, which finished third at the 2004 Regional.

The 27-team field includes Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida, Duke, Wake Forest, Tennessee, Georgia Southern, Alabama, Clemson, Georgia State, Coastal Carolina, East Tennessee State, Indiana, Central Florida, North Carolina, Louisville, Virginia, Vanderbilt, Charlotte, Penn State, North Carolina-Wilmington, Towson, Rhode Island, Rutgers, Maryland, Army and Boston College as well as six individual competitors (Jordan Dempsey of Mississippi, Rob Langley of Furman, Michael Thompson and Chris Wheeler of Tulane, Robert Dinwiddie of Tennessee State and Joe Deraney of Mississippi State).

Head coach Jimmy Ray Clevenger anticipates stern competition from this regional field, which includes five of the top 15 teams from the 2004 NCAA Championships. The Yellow Jackets placed fifth at the 2004 NCAA Championships, while Florida tied for sixth, Georgia and Georgia State tied for 11th and Penn State finished 15th.

"The regional that we're playing is probably the premiere regional from top to bottom; it's stacked, the best teams are there," admits Clevenger. "We're going to have our work cut out for us to try and move from the 26th ranking down. It's a lot tougher regional this year."

The 2005 East Regional will be held at the 6,844-yard, par-71 Golf Club of Tennessee in Kingston Springs, regarded as one of the elite courses in the state of Tennessee. Established in 1991, The Golf Club of Tennessee was recognized by Golf Digest as the "Best New Private Course in America."

"It's a pretty tough golf course, not overly long, but very demanding," remarks Clevenger. "It's going to definitely test our games."

Clevenger's five-man squad consists of seniors Scott Manley and Pete Phipps, junior Austin Luher and freshmen Patrick Beverly and Joey Cave. All five golfers have enjoyed successful 2004-05 campaigns and hope to make a statement at this year's regional.

"The team we're taking down there is a pretty solid team throughout the lineup," comments Clevenger. "I'm hoping that final exams the last few days haven't taken a lot out of them before we get down there."

Manley, Army's team captain for the second year in a row, is making his third NCAA Regional appearance and has led the Black Knight contingent in each of his prior two post-season tournaments. Last year in New Haven, Manley tied for 54th overall out of 141 competitors with a score of 222 (76-76-70). That composite score matched the lowest tally ever recorded by an Army golfer at an NCAA Regional event. Former Army linksman Brent Mumford registered a 222 to tie for 37th at the 1991 East Regional also played in New Haven, Conn.

A 2005 All-Patriot League and All-New England selection this season, Manley has carded five rounds of par or better and has posted Army's best finish in five of its 12 tournaments.

Joining Manley on the all-conference first team is classmate Phipps who is coming off a remarkable career-low effort of 69 during the second round of the Patriot League Tournament. He and Manley tied for fourth at the conference championship, helping the Black Knights win their third title in four years and ninth overall.

Luher is another mainstay in the Army lineup who owned the lowest stroke average during the spring campaign at 76.2. A second team all-league selection, Luher earned seventh place finishes in each of his last two tournaments.

A pair of plebes round out the Army clan, both of whom took home all-conference second team honors in their first season in the Black, Gold and Gray. Beverly made an immediate impact during the fall season, winning medalist honors in his Army debut at the Blue Devil Fall Invitational. He posted the lowest stroke average on the squad during the fall (74) and placed in the top 20 in all four tournaments he appeared in. Cave emerged as a potential star during the latter portion of the spring campaign with a pair of top 10 finishes in Army's final two tournaments of the season.

Clevenger and his squad are focused on registering a strong showing at the regional this weekend and have several goals in mind.

"We're going to try and break 300," notes Clevenger. "That's our goal and we'll see where that puts us. We have three players who could get hot and make a run at the individual spot to advance on, but they'll have to play well for three days and probably take it under par.

"We're just going to try to take care of what we can take care of; we can't control how good the regional is and how good the other teams are. We're just going to go and play our game, try to be as efficient as a team can possibly be and cut down on our mistakes and try to break 300 all three rounds. I think if we can do that, we'll be very satisfied with our finish."

As the No. 26 seed, the Black Knights will tee off at 8:06 a.m. from the tenth tee Thursday morning. Admission to the NCAA East Regional is free of charge.